I am back...

..from the wonderful trip I had this time to my hometown. But beat the return trip...Man, for once, I was just dying to get back to hyd. And I'll tell you why...

Anyways, at home it was joy as usual. Diwali was a dhamaka. Did not have the strength to freak out as always, coz of a sore back. Spent 90% of the time idling and stretching at home. Got to know the schedules of almost all the soaps and shows.

Saturday night was travel time for a friend, so went to see her off at the airport. And then whiled off the night awake and talking philosophy with two of the most understanding people (coz they are equally stupid). And at 4 am, left my friend's place for the most eventful day in a long time.

I had planned to make a roadtrip to Hyd, in a Maruti 800, 1997 model.The car was in good condition, that is until I drove it asleep. I was taking it to a 10 minute drive to get somethings from home. And little did I know about the actual conditions of roads in Bangalore. I took on a speed breaker in all bravery and then landed right into a pothole around 2 feet deep! Got the bumper broken, and the wire to the radiator fan cut...The coolant started boiling and pouring out. At at 5.30 am on a Sunday morning, all mechanics would be snoring. I didnt want to cancel the trip though. After 2 hours of search and tension, the car was finally in shape. And then the journey started. Had a driver along with me, who has around 24 years of driving behind him. The two of us embarked on a joyride thereafter.

9.25 am - Crossed Yelahanka and left the city, cursing myself all the way to have spoiled the plan to start early. Blore traffic gets awful even at 9 am on Sunday.

11 am - Breakfast. 2 idlies, a vada and a set dosa.

12.47 am - Took over from the driver, Ram. This being the first time for me on the highway, I was surprised to see the confidence Ram showed on me. He is immensely experienced and for him to hand over the wheel to me without any fuss and advice, man, I should have had good face value.

3 pm - Anantpur. Lunch at Reliance A1 Plaza.

3.40 pm - Around 25 km after Anantpur, handed over the driver's seat to Ram. I hadnt slept in over 40 hours, and it was beginning to tell on me. He started driving and I started snoring. But it wasnt before I had a couple of words of compliments from Ram :) Before this highway trip, I had hardly 150 km of car driving experience and was pretty proud of myself to have been able to sustain an average speed of 90+ on NH 7 for such a long time without being fazed by all those heavy trucks.

6.15 pm - Halt at some place I didnt bother to note the name of. Tea and a bit of cleaning the glasses.

8.20 pm - Enter Hyderabad.

9.15 pm - Managed to find a seat in the cabin for Ram's travel back to Bangalore. He insisted he had to be back to attend his duty this morning, coz he drives for medical services, which means ambulances usually.

9.45 pm - Parked the car at 'her' place, who is now the owner of the car :) Had dinner, took off from there.

11 pm - Crashed down.

It was simply amazing. Around 650 km totally. With a back like mine, most people should've collapsed. Thanks to my good luck, I am in an ok-ok shape now.

And now, I begin to count down to my next roadtrip. With a few more hundreds of driving around and getting used to situations, I should be doing pretty good to take on the full distance myself. Time to get into shape.